Shunsuke Kazama

Shunsuke Kazama
is a Japanese actor and television personality affiliated with Johnny & Associates.
Career
In 1997, when Kazama was in his second year of junior high school, he entered Johnny & Associates and started activities as a trainee. He made his debut on stage that same year in a Shonentai stage play.
In 1999, he played Kenjiro Kanesue in Kinpachi-sensei. His performance earned him the Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix award for Best Newcomer.
In 2002, Kazama was member of unit "FOURTOPS" with fellow trainees Tomohisa Yamashita, Toma Ikuta, and Jun Hasegawa. The quartet hosted Shounen Club, a Johnny's Jr. variety show. In September 2003, Yamashita was chosen to be a member of a new unit, News. FOURTOPS was dissolved with News' debut, and the remaining members would focus on acting. They reunited in 2018 for Fuji Television's Year-End show Johnny's Countdown as back dancers for duo Tackey & Tsubasa, just as they did in the group's original days, for the duo's final appearance on the show.
In 2011, Kazama won a Television Drama Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
He was a member of TU→YU in 2008, along with V6's Hiroshi Nagano, NEWS's Takahisa Masuda, Hey! Say! JUMP's Hikaru Yaotome and actor Tatsuya Takeda.
He starred in the feature-length film Maebashi Visual Kei, as a young farmer who tries to make it big in a visual kei band.
When fellow Johnny Kazunari Ninomiya from Arashi, with whom Kazama has a close friendship, opened Twitter in 2023, he included a link to Kazama's Johnny's Web profile as if it were his own, much to the amusement of both their fans.
Mostly known as an actor, Kazama's musical career is basically non-existent, except for a few units at the beginning. So he was happy to receive a present from fellow Johnny and long time friend (Arashi's) Masaki Aiba. On 28 September 2023, at the last airing of the program VS Damashii in which both appeared, Aiba as "captain" and he as "assistant captain". Aiba gifted Kazama (and all the Damashii members) a CD copy of the show's theme song "New Again! Again and again!" saying, "Congratulations on your CD debut, Kazama-kun", to what Kazama responded, "This is the first CD that includes my voice in 26 years (of my entertainment career)."
Personal life
Kazama married a non-celebrity woman in 2013, after dating for ten years.
On December 22, 2020, Kazama's talent agency announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He made a full recovery on January 4.
Filmography
Film
Television
Other TV shows
Zip! (Monday's main personality) (2018- ) (NTV)
VS Damashii (Team's assistant captain) (2021-2023) (Fuji TV)
Animation
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (2000−2004) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX (2004−2008) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light (2005) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time (2010) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
From Up On Poppy Hill (2011) − Shirō Mizunuma & Hiroshi Tachibana.
Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions (2016) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
Video games
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (2016) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
Jump Force (2019) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
Stage
Awards
References
External links
Shunsuke Kazama at GamePlaza-Haruka Voice Acting Database
Shunsuke Kazama at Hitoshi Doi's Seiyuu Database
1983 births
Living people
Japanese male actors
Japanese male musical theatre actors
Japanese male stage actors
Japanese male video game actors
Japanese male child actors
Japanese male voice actors
Japanese television personalities
Johnny & Associates
Male voice actors from Tokyo